I'll bet you can guess which classic movie I'm thinking of:
— The same day repeats itself, over and over again. He wakes up, and it's the exact same day. He, alone, is stuck inside of some kind of crazy time loop.
— At first he's in despair, then he realizes he can use it to his advantage to land the fair damsel.
— This he does, then everything goes back to normal and they live happily ever after.
Yep, the movie 12:01 sure is fun.
Ah, but I know what you're thinking. Just another pale imitation of the immortal Groundhog Day, right?
Except it came out a year before 'Groundhog Day'.
Oh, and there might have been a few other small differences. What was his ultimate goal in Groundhog Day?
To get into her pants.
What was his ultimate goal in 12:01?
To save her life and the world.
Did he actually care for the girl in Groundhog Day?
Not in the slightest.
And 12:01?
He truly cared for her deeply and sincerely, if only from afar.
Of course, convincing someone you're actually stuck in a time loop — without them calling for Security or the medical staff — might not be quite as easy as it looks. Here are his first two attempts.
All in all, a warm, sensitive movie about a caring guy on a noble mission.
In other words, nothing at all like Groundhog Day.
We'll be Unstoppable below the fold.
If I could do it all over again, I would have been an eye surgeon. This would have been back in the 70's and I would have been one of the pioneers in laser eye surgery.
Next on the list?
Train engineer.
Imagine getting paid to drive a vehicle that steers itself!
Now that's livin'.
Starring the indefatigable Denzel Washington and up-and-coming star Chris Pine (of the great 'Star Trek' prequel), Unstoppable is fun from first minute to last. Good music score, good antagonistic dialogue between the Old Hand and the Rookie, a corporate bad guy you immediately hate, and a refreshingly down-to-earth problem — as referred to my review of 'The Avengers' the other day featuring armed vicious aliens pouring through an interdimensional hole in the sky.
Because the movie does raise one simple, pragmatic question:
How do you stop a runaway train?
In the last few seconds of that clip, Denzel figures out how.
And, good job by the state police, eh? The first cop tries to deny the Press access to a story, telling them to 'stay in the van for your own safety', failing to realize that safety isn't in their job description. Getting the story is.
And the accident? He only swerved into the horse trailer to avoid hitting the moron cop standing in the middle of the road! If I were the Pennsylvania State Police, I'd be thinkin' lawsuit for 'defamation of character'.
If the lady looked familiar, that's Rosario Dawson, the cutie in Men In Black II.
Doc gives both movies seven up-twinkles, or "3½ stars" by the old rating system.
If you're into train wrecks (and who isn't?), I have a runaway train special here. And, in what I consider one of my most beautiful Maggie's pieces ever, there's Disaster Vid: Train Wreck at Wenzhou.
